Some Cycles Have to End
by Spiritseer245
Summary: Just when all seems right with the world, Max and Percy must team up once again to save it. The scientist are getting more eager to push their plans forward for the end of the world. With monsters and bitter gods helping the mortals, the flock and half-bloods have a grueling task ahead of them. Can they save humanity? Sequel to Never Ending Cycle.
1. Poseidon- Prologue

**What's up, I'm hoping you all enjoy the sequal as much if not more than the original. I have some ideas and I hope alternating between this and Percy Jackson awakened will help me with the writing. I am also planning on picking up work on my own origional work. **

**The ever obligatory disclaimer. I don't own Percy Jackson or Maximum Ride all rights belong to their origional creators.**

_Three months after the School was destroyed_

This was the place, Poseidon decided as he clamored over a slick metal railing and onto the deck of the boat. For the most part the ship was silent, bobbing gently with the waves of the ocean. For now. If he confirmed what his guard had told him, these people would be shark food before the night was through. A smaller figure clamored behind him, landing on the deck with less grace than his older counterpart.

"Father, you can't be serious?" an irritated voice scoffed. "You know that it is against the law to interfere with mortal affairs. So, what if they do experiments on other humans?"

"These people think themselves to be gods." The man growled. "Harming others, destroying families. All in the name of their cause."

"Sounds pretty god-like to me, father."

It was hard for Poseidon to contradict his son, after all the gods weren't perfect themselves, no matter how often they claimed to be. They could be subject to mortal fallacies, but that still didn't make it right for these self-made gods to lack morality. Silently, the god maneuvered his way to the boat's cabin. He would find out what these people were up to. If it was what he believed it to be, they wouldn't see the sunrise.

Poseidon smoothly and noiselessly glided across the boat, almost like a shark stalking its next kill. Triton stumbled, unlike him, the concept of two legs was still hard to grasp. When you spend your whole life swimming, feet were a different ballpark. He hadn't wanted his son to come at all, but ever the brazen and proud boy that he was, Triton convinced him to have a partnership in this expedition.

When they reached the door for the cabin, he pressed his ear to it. It was silent. Most likely the occupants of the ship were widely asleep. After breaking the handle to the door, the man slipped inside. All he needed was a glimpse of proof and then this ship would find its new place at the bottom of the sea.

"Come on, you need to keep up." Poseidon hissed at his son. The boy could barely mask his annoyance as he stumbled over the door frame.

"How can humans live like this?" The youth complained. "It's a wonder they accomplish anything."

"Stop complaining." He warned. "There are more important things at stake than your pride, if we aren't careful, if we _don't_ accomplish all that we need to, innocent people will be hurt."

He didn't miss the contemptuous look that came to his son's eyes, "You mean _he_ could get hurt."

Poseidon didn't deny he had selfish motives for storming the ship. It would have been easier to just destroy it, but he had to be sure. He had to know that they weren't going to harm someone precious to him. He had to be positive that what happened all those months ago, hadn't become common knowledge among these monsters.

"I don't know why he's so special to you." Triton continued; envy and attitude seeped from his voice. "He's going to die someday. Why get attached?"

Biting his lip, the god thought back to the pudgy faced baby he had watched over all those years ago. The sparkling green eyes that reflected his own. A child he had conceived with a woman he truly loved. How could something so innocent and pure be plagued with the worst luck? Poseidon blamed himself, he blamed his broken promise on the boy's unfortunate talent to stumble into dangerous situations.

"When you have children of your own one day, you will understand."

The sea god was grateful when Triton went silent. He was getting tired of his son trying to belittle his mission every step along the way. It wasn't like the boy _never_ got along with his half-siblings. He used to love meeting them, but after a while, that excitement melted away into bitter resentment. Poseidon wasn't sure what had caused it; maybe it was Triton maturing or jealousy.

Or it could simply be a form of self-preservation.

Trying to force those thoughts out of his mind, Poseidon focused on his mission once again. The two of them checked room after room in hopes of finding _something_ worth noting. So far, the occupants of the boat didn't have anything noteworthy. He found a few lab results; some descriptions of test and the DNA cocktail the subjects had been 'endowed' with. All of it disgusted the man.

It was an impressive feat considering all he has seen through his long-life span.

"Father, are you going to destroy the ship, even if we _don't_ find anything?" His son asked quietly. "Even though I care little about these mortals, it would be nice to avoid polluting the ocean any more than it already has been."

Poseidon eyed a particularly nasty photo of a disfigured child and balled his fist. The young mortal looked as if they were in pain. "Yes, even if they had nothing to do with your brother, I will feed them to the sharks for what they've done."

His son sighed but didn't argue any further. This was the last office the man could find. Mortals tended to keep their important documents separate from their work. He had hoped to find _something_ to link them to the events months prior, but so far there was nothing. On the other hand, maybe that was a good thing. It means that they hadn't found out about….

The god's eyes wandered to a charred notebook placed carefully on a bookshelf at the back of the room. He ignored his son as his feet took him strait toward it. Ever so carefully, he opened it to find _exactly _what he thought he would among these people. The book belonged to someone he had briefly thought of as a friend.

_Property of Jeb Batchelder_

Swallowing his contempt, the man slowly leafed through the book. There were pictures of a boy and a woman. Mostly the boy. Each were taken at different time periods with notes flooding the pages. _Subject is singled out in school_…._Subject shows development issues; he has a hard time learning to spell and read. Maybe this is related to who his _father_ is?_..._Mother has refused to treat him for his attention disorder. Why? _It seemed as if most of the book had started that way and then suddenly the word _'subject'_ was replaced with a name.

_Percy has shown significant improvement in his social development….I spotted Percy manipulating the currents at the beach….Percy and Sally seem happier….Percy survived an explosion at his school….Percy was with a blond girl. Another demigod?_

Poseidon closed the book and pinched the bridge of his nose. He wasn't sure if his headache was from reading about the man's obsession with his son, or if it was from trying to keep his temper in check. Either way, he needed to get this book to Chiron. He also needed to warn Percy of the danger he was in. How many other organizations knew of the demigod's existence?

"I take it you found what you need?" For the first time since they started their expedition, Triton didn't have a snarky tone in his voice. "We should leave, father."

"Wait for me at home, Triton." The god growled and handed his son the book. "Keep this safe until I return."

"But-…"

"GO!" Poseidon roared like a wave crashing on a beach, barely containing his rage.

He watched as Triton scrambled out of the boat's cabin. He waited until he sensed the boy was back in the water before continuing farther into the floating lab. It was still eerily silent throughout the boat. Poseidon knew that there were people on the boat. He knew there had to be one coward amid the infectious insanity that plagued the scientist.

"The hybrid hasn't woken up yet." A voice chimed from a room he almost passed. "Batchelder's notes about the existence of demigods seemed like nonsensical rambling, but when you take into account what happened at the School, there is no explosive that could cause that amount of damage without effecting the surrounding area."

Another voice sighed. "Assuming that Batchelder hasn't gone insane; he kept something this monumentally important to the science world a secret. Especially when it was something we had wrongly dismissed."

"What does the big boss think about this?" the first scientist asked. "Are we going to act on Batchelder's notes?"

A sick feeling came to Poseidon's stomach. He'd been hoping that sinking the ship would be the end of madness. He was waging a war that wasn't going to end anytime soon. If it'd keep his son safe, it'd be worth the punishment that came with it. Being turned human wasn't the _worst _thing in the world. Especially when he had a teen son he'd be allowed to spend time with. That'd be fine by him.

Though, the other gods should be thanking him; he was working to keep their children safe as well.

Slowly he crept into the room. He knew he needed to find out who the _Big Boss_ was. Hopeful that their death would put a stop to the experiments once and for all. The mortals kept muttering to one another. They weren't sure whether to call Jeb crazy or be offended they'd been denied knowledge about godlings for so long.

Poseidon crouched lowly, hiding behind tables, doing his best to remain unseen. He peeked carefully over the counter of a table. There were two lanky mortals in lab coats, one a woman with red hair carefully put into a bun and the other, a man who looked sickly and was sweating worse than Hephaestus after a long day at the forge. Both were standing next to a medical bed with a hairy dog-human creature splayed out uselessly. It must have been one of the _Eraser_ creatures Percy had told him about.

"The boss wants to know what this beast has to say before we entertain the existence of immortals."

"What about the boy in the notes?" Poseidon felt his heart drop when they mentioned Percy.

"Jeb never put a last name." The woman sighed in annoyance. "As far as we know there could be hundreds of "Percy's" in New York. And I think Jeb's obsession with the family had more than scientific research as the motivation."

He clenched his fist at the idea of Jeb lurking around his son for years. How had the monsters he sent to watch Percy not notice the man? Poseidon would have to question them about their failure later. For a long moment, the sea god sat still, not sure of what he should do. He kind of rushed in without any plan. If Athena where here, what would she do? She'd probably tell him to stop being an idiot sitting on the floor of a mortal science lab wondering what she'd do.

_Ever helpful, Athena_. He thought sarcastically. But it was true, now wasn't the time to be hesitating. He felt stupid for taking so long to send the boat to the bottom of the ocean. The god decided he should just sink it and….

"RAraaa!" The creature on the table woke with a scream, its claws flailed all over and nearly took out the female scientist. Slowly, the fur sank back into peach skin, the being collapsed to the bed looking like a normal mortal. "Ohhhh, damn kids."

"Its about time you woke up 22-31." the woman looked hardly fazed by her near death experience. "We were beginning to think it was an effort in vain digging you from that rubble. You've been comatose for a few months."

22-31 shook his head, wincing as the movement jarred remaining injuries. "I'm lucky to be alive."

"What happened?" The male scientist pushed, looking like a kid asking about a big disaster. "Are there really such things as demigods?"

"Can I get a moment to catch my breath at least?"

The woman scientist shook her head, "You've had months, now tell us what happened to the School."

"As you wish, _master_." 22-31 bit out, an animalistic growl erupting from his throat. Poseidon felt as if he were frozen in place. He debated on whether he should kill them all before Percy was mentioned, but he also wondered if the ringleader would finally be revealed. "Jeb was all excited about this kid. Some boy named _Percy Jackson_. Somehow, he convinced the others that the boy was important. They were all skeptical, but Ari and the rest of us were sent to capture him."

The woman looked unimpressed. "Why? Is it true that the boy already had powers?"

"They all do." 22-31 told her, "A plethora of kids who have abilities without enhancements."

Both scientists looked at each other as if unsure what to do with this information. Poseidon cursed under his breath. Were there more of these monsters who survived the destruction of the School? More of the 'White Coats' learning about the existence of godly offspring? These humans sure did know how to make durable mutants.

"We must let Director Janssen know Jeb wasn't crazy." The female scientist muttered, "Doctor Hans will want to see this for himself."

"Do you think he'll let me help with the experiments?" the man was practically drooling at the prospect. The god of the seas was tempted to drown him in it.

That was it, Poseidon had enough, "I doubt either of you will be much help to them drowned in the belly of the sea."

The god emerged from his hiding spot. He was tempted to show his true form and burn the mortals to a crisp, but he was hoping to get the locations of _Director Janssen_ and _Doctor Hans_. Both the woman and man looked startled, they fumbled around in their pockets for something. A pager or an alarm switch perhaps. Poseidon felt his darker side welling to the surface, a side he tried to hide from Percy and Sally.

"You really think your trinkets, your army, can do anything to harm me?" He chuckled. The humans both froze like a couple of scared guppies. "I can make your deaths swift, if you tell me where Director Janssen and Doctor Hans are."

The woman's lip quivered, "Don't tell me you're a…."

"A god." Poseidon finished for her. Every ounce of smugness had faded from her face. He'd almost have some sympathy for her, if the horrors of what his son had to endure weren't rattling in his head. "Yes, in fact, your whole crew is crossing over my domain as we speak."

The mutant leapt off the bed, hair erupting from his skin and his body morphing into his dog-like form. Not smart. Poseidon merely swatted at the air and 22-31 went flying into the opposite direction. The scientist paled as their only form of protection went splat into the wall. They backed away as the god continued to march towards them.

"You all think yourselves to be gods?" He demanded. "You think you have the _right_ to harm our children?"

"T…the world is c.. ." The woman scientist stammered. "It n…needs to end, start over. Th…there is no way to save the h…human race without…."

"_Improvements_." The male scientist finished for her. A disgusting bit of pride twinkled in his eye. "We're making the next generation better than the last. This world will end, but thanks to _us_ humanity will live on. Even if you kill us, there are more out there looking to create the new world order."

_This world will end._ Poseidon didn't quite understand what the scientist was getting at. He and Zeus were very aware of the Earth's state. There was a lot of pollution and destruction, but the mortals were all trying to fix their mess. Poseidon even had his people cleaning garbage they'd find. On top of that, the earth did have her own temperament. The war with Gaea was a testament to that.

He doubted she'd destroy herself.

"You are all mad." The god decided. "Tell me; where are the two named _Jansen_ and _Hans_?"

"I…I don't know." The woman stuttered. "We only communicate with them through the phone and computer. They are constantly moving to avoid being caught. Please have mercy."

Poseidon looked around the lab; at the mutant mortal that that had been enslaved to be a monster, at the countless distorted human children stuck into preservatives for future study, at the various surgical tools splayed out around him. All of this was disgusting and horrible and while the woman feared for her live, she is not sorry for the pain she caused. She was not at all sorry for the pain his son had to endure.

"Freeze! Put your hand up!" A voce shouted.

A group of soldiers stomped into the room. It appears they had been reaching for a panic button. Poseidon heard them all cock their guns, prepared to fire at him. The god eyed the mortal woman down.

"My mercy for you, is death."

The boat gave a pained groan as a large wave crashed onto its deck. Mortals yelped in shock as it swayed and rolled from the force. A second wave crashed onto the boat and pushed it down further into the ocean. Water was starting to flood in as it sank. One of the monitors in the room started flickering to life.

"Lazerus, report." A garbled voice came over the speaker.

"Director Jansen!" the woman wailed. "We need immediate assistance, we're sinking!"

Poseidon paused his attack, ordering the water to stay at bay. He walked to the computer to see a flickering image of a woman. She had blondish brown hair, an aged but youthful looking face, he wouldn't have been able to predict her proper age if he tried. She kind of reminded him of Percy's friend Max, but then again, a lot of mortals looked alike to him.

"Who are you?" The woman demanded.

"I'm your worst nightmare." Poseidon told her. "When I find you, you will suffer the same fate as the crew of this ship."

The water eagerly began to flood the cabin. Jansen showed no fear as her scientist plead and screamed for help. It seemed that she could care less. Poseidon saw a smirk curl on her face. He wished he could destroy her and her whole operation in one fell swoop.

"I can't wait to see you try."


	2. Percy-Chapter 1

**Per usual, I am not the owner of Percy Jackson or Maximum Ride. All rights belong to their respective owners.**

Percy-Chapter 1

Imagine this: a clear sunny day on a clean beach with the ocean slowly lapping at the sand. Beautiful and serene. Almost calm enough that you could sleep your day away here. Now imagine all of that, but picture a 90 pound bird girl coming at you with her size seven sneaker aimed directly for your face. Yeah. This was training de la Max.

We probably spent the better part of the morning on the beach training.

The flock had arrived at the camp with little trouble. Of course, after the big battle at the School, demigods didn't mind inviting them into the ranks. Travis and Connor had been the first to offer them a bed in the Hermes cabin; it wasn't as crowded as it used to be since the gods have kept their promises to me. Max refused. A: because she barely knew them and B: because I already offered them beds in my cabin. Afterall, when Tyson was with dad, I was the only person in the cabin.

Poseidon wouldn't mind.

School was also in session for me, which meant that I'd be home on weekdays. So, in reality, the cabin was free for them to use while I was gone. The only one who didn't live solely on camp was Nudge. As soon as she found out I was going to school she bugged Max to let her have another shot at being a _normal_ teenager. I wasn't sure what had transpired between the two, but it didn't take long before I was asking mom and Paul if Nudge could live with us for a while.

Mom had no problem with having another girl in the house, especially one with as many stories to tell as Nudge. I didn't mind her being around too much. Except for when she asked me about every 'cute guy' she saw at Goode. I couldn't help her too much considering I wasn't exactly Mr. Popular. Even with the occasional girl flirting with me; Percy Jackson was still considered a 'nobody' by high school standards.

"Percy, focus." Max shouted as I narrowly avoided getting her foot plastered into my face. "I thought your ADHD helped you in battle."

"It does." I told her. "I'm just thinking."

"Uh oh." She teased before charging at me with another attack.

I deflected her fist with the heel of my hand only to be met with a foot to my gut. Max's enhanced strength sent me tumbling through the sand. It flooded through my clothing; my shirt, socks, and pants were now loaded with the stuff. As anyone who's ever gone to a beach could imagine, it's not exactly comfortable. My wings protested painfully as I rolled head over heels a good yard away from her. She laughed.

"So much for the 'Hero of Olympus' title. Come on, Fish Bait. I know you can do better than that."

I slowly got to my feet, shaking as much of the sand from my hair and clothing as possible. Was I holding back? Maybe. I didn't mind most nicknames she gave me: Water-boy, Gill-Bill, Aqueduct, but "Fish Bait"? _Lame_. I imagined myself having a link with the water lapping at the beach, I could almost visualize the invisible current between me and the ocean. The drain on my energy was starting to ebb off a bit, I was getting stronger. Max may have thought she knew all of my tricks, but I still had a few more up my sleeve.

I was just getting warmed up.

I let Max be the one to make a move. She pushed herself off the ground and into the air, trying to use the sun to blind me. She once again took aim and dived at me at maximum speed. Unfortunately for her, I also had enhanced speed. And I was not going to go rolling across the beach again. I sidestepped and used my wings to pull me far away from her. Max hadn't noticed yet because I left a perfect copy in my place.

Sometimes having access to an infinite supply of water and then having enhancements that, well, enhanced those powers came in handy. Somehow, I found it a lot easier to do more complex things with it. It wouldn't be a lie to say I was proud of myself. I watched as Max's fist sank into my copy's face. She could only give a half yelp in surprise as the rest of her body followed her hands lead. The copy sank into the sand with a _floosh._

"Did that classify as better?" I asked as I hovered above her.

"Neat trick." She rang her drenched hair out and bushed the wet sand off her skin. "You're definitely getting good at that. Have you noticed any other change? What about you being able to telekinetically destroy things?"

My mind took me back to the School exploding. What if I had done a lot worse? I hadn't tried it since that day, I was afraid that I'd end up doing more than make a building explode. I knew that could happen if I didn't have perfect control over my abilities. Or perfect control over myself. They were still fixing things since I made Mt. St. Helen erupt.

"There's really nowhere safe to try it out, Max." I told her. I squeezed my pinkie finger in hopes that Annabeth was able to sense, how I was feeling, but I don't think Death's curse worked that way. "I could hurt someone."

Max's eyes wandered to the water, "There is the ocean. I'm sure its teaming with abandon ships and stuff. The water could absorb some of the explosion too."

"And what if I, I don't know, cause a tsunami?"

"I'm not saying do it without restraint, Percy." She huffed, her brown eyes darkened with annoyance. "But it's probably the best place to try this. Without the immortality, it could be pretty taxing on you. Besides, the world has enough problems without people thinking World War III is starting."

I frowned and stared out towards the calmly swaying ocean. How would Dad feel about me randomly blowing things up in his domain? Max was still standing on the beach, tapping her foot impatiently. She wasn't going to let up. I knew the flock always checked out their power. They wanted to know what they had at their disposal to defend themselves.

She just wanted me to be prepared.

Max would be a good daughter of Ares, or maybe Athena. Though her kick first and ask questions later ideology made me lean more towards the god of war. The look on her face told me she wasn't going to relent. With a sigh I moved to hover over the ocean and let myself drop. The waves sprang up towards me as if they were welcoming an old friend.

I sat for a moment enjoying the clarity that I seemed to feel in the ocean. It felt as if time were moving slowly. The water was cool, a refreshing change from burning energy on the surface. Max crashed into the water next to me with a flop. She smiled at me and pushed me farther down in the water before taking off.

She and the flock had gills. It was weird for me to wrap my head around even after all I've seen the School do. My mind wandered back to the fish girl I had seen at the School. What kind of lives would their victims have if the School never existed? Maybe none of the kids would have ever been born. I knew that Jeb was in fact Max's biological father.

Is there a chance she would have never been born? Or perhaps, Jeb could have been a _real_ father.

Fang's mom had been told he died after his birth. I felt sick when I realized that could have easily been me. What had stopped Jeb from taking me? Poseidon? I imagine my dad could probably tell if something happened to me. He may have even sought Hades if he was told I was dead. Is that why Jeb hadn't tried abducting me when I was a baby?

Or maybe it was for a different reason?

I did my best to shake what if scenarios from my mind and focus on Max's form swimming ahead of me. Whenever overly curious sharks would get near her, I'd shoo them with a flick of my wrist. They'd give me an apologetic look before taking off as fast as they came. It wasn't that I thought they'd hurt her, with me around they were docile, but I doubted Max would see it that way.

We were about eighty miles offshore before Max and I found a sunken ship. It was probably an old fishing ship. There were cranes holding the tattered remains of nets, its hull was split in half. The wood was turning green with mold and it was slowly being encased in barnacles and other things you'd find on a sea shelf. Fish and sharks all circled it mundanely like traffic in the city. You know, exactly how you'd expect an old sunken ship to look.

Max made some hand motions that told me that she wanted me to blow it up. Seeing all the marine life that had turned it into their home, I wasn't sure I felt okay doing that. There must be something else. Something less…populated. I didn't want to be known as the jerk son of Poseidon.

My brunette friend saw my hesitance and sighed the best she could under water. It mostly came out as a series of bubbles and echoey grumbling noises. The two of us went off in search of another-more abandoned-boat. Or something on that order. Max and I eventually found a ship that sat on the edge of a deep fissure on the ocean floor. It was painted green and black with half of a company logo stuck to its side. It looked like one of those big shipment liners. There were even giant metal shipping units still sitting on the deck.

It was relatively abandoned.

"Let's check this out." Max mouthed and dragged me along as she swam towards it.

As we got nearer to the ship, I could tell why fish and other marine life hadn't taken refuge in it. There was a sickly bubble of filth that seemed to surround the ship. One end was letting out a small stream of oil, the water around the area was a murky gray. Max gave a disgusted grimace as we swam closer and closer to the wreck. I could sense something was leaking from some of the containers as well. It felt as if I were walking into a toxic waste dump.

I didn't know how long this had been here or what had been shipped, but I felt annoyed that no one came to retrieve whatever toxic stuff was leaking out of the ship. The disgusting feeling became even worse when we were on the deck. I didn't want to touch anything. I felt as sickened by the water around me like I did when would Gabe puff cigar smoke into my face. How much of the sea life was being exposed to the toxins?

Max tapped me on the shoulder and made a bubble motion with her hands. I obliged and surrounded us with air. Thankfully, I was dry and none of that gross water stuck to me, the same couldn't be said for Max. She shivered in disgust before we began walking to one of the nearest units. It did have _some_ algae on the handle, but other than that nothing seemed to be interested in it.

"What do you think they were shipping?" Max asked me and tried to clear off the label on the door. "There's something familiar about the company logo…."

I let our air bubble envelope the door of the shipping container. The smell oozing from the container was sour and metallic and it left a gross taste in my mouth. It didn't make me feel as bad as I had felt around Polybotes, but it was still nauseating. She reached forward to open the container, but I stopped her; almost puking at the idea of whatever was inside being given free reign.

I had a feeling it'd be worse than the oil spill in the Golf Coast.

"Whatever they were shipping, it's not good. It has probably been scaring all of the fish off." I frowned as I eyed the other containers around us. Max scowled, giving the container an irritable punch, as if it were the container's fault it was carrying environmentally damaging stuff. "I definitely am not going to blow this up."

"Yeah, I don't think your dad would appreciate any more pollution in his domain." She agreed, "Lets…Gah!"

Before I could even process what happened, something barreled through the bubble and dragged Max out. The toxic stew around me flooded back in, but I was more worried about Max. I frantically scanned the endless ocean that surround me, searching for any signs of her. Whatever had taken Max was fast, but it didn't look like any sea life I had ever seen. A mer-person maybe?

I desperately listened for her; a struggle, a grunt, anything that could indicate where she had gone. If there were fish around, I'd ask for their help, but whatever had been carried on the boat consequently scared off all the marine life. Or worse. I dove towards the crevasse. Maybe she had been taken down there. While I didn't doubt Max's ability to defend herself, I was worried. Times like these made me wish I had Angel's telepathic abilities.

As I came closer to the pit in the ocean, a surge of water shot up the wall of the underwater valley. I felt myself pushed back towards the boat. An odd, waterlogged giggle filled my ears. I whorled around to find the source but saw nothing. I knew I wasn't alone; I could feel my stalker's eyes boring into me. It was probably a monster evaluating how good of a snack I'd be. Or if it'd be worth facing my father's wrath if it ate me.

_"I remember you."_ A voice song-sang. It didn't sound like they were talking, more like it did when a fish and horses would speak to me. _"You're that boy from the lab. The one who is shiny. Why are you so shiny?"_

"It must be my glowing personality." I retorted. "How about you stop hiding and show yourself?"

_"Ahhh, your voice."_ I could feel that whatever I was talking to was circling me. _"I've longed to know what it sounds like, it's wonderful! Say more!"_

A small, skeletal-framed girl swam from the darkness; she had long brown hair, luminous yellow eyes, blue scales covered her body, and fins protruded from her limbs. She looked familiar. But where had I seen her before? She grinned, her shark-like teeth gleaming as she swam closer to me. The clothing she wore was tattered and could be more accurately be described as rags.

The girl tilted her head, "_You don't remember me, do you? Though I guess you had other things to worry about. But don't worry, Shiny, I won't let those monsters hurt you."_

It was a bit freaky to hear her voice, but not see her lips move. That should be old hat by now, but nope, still bizarre. I raked my brain trying to remember who she was, and then it hit me. The girl back at the school, the one in the fish-tank. Why was she here? I noticed that something had been tacked to her ear. A tracker. Something like marine biologist would put on a shark to record its activity. She had to of been out here since before I destroyed the school.

That had been months ago.

"No. I remember you." I told her. Her pointed smile became even more twisted, I watched as her gold iris shrank, her already large pupil seemed to swallow all the color. Kind of like a cat that saw something it really wanted. "Have you seen my friend?"

She tilted her head to the side, _"There are no friends down here. No, only food."_

My gut twisted. Was her humanity dissolved by living in the ocean for so long? I doubted that she killed Max, but for all I knew, my friend was unconscious on a coral shelf somewhere. The girl giggled and circled around me, chirps and other noises escaping her. She'd swoop in close and quickly to brush her fingers through my hair. Even if Riptide could have an effect on her, she was too quick for me to react.

_"You aren't food, Shiny."_ She cooed as if I was a cute little kid. _"You are treasure. You will live with me. I will take care of you."_

"Sorry, but I have a girlfriend." I told her and dodged her attempt to grab me.

I swam back up, towards the deck of the boat. The girl followed, muttering "_Shiny"_ as she did. Maybe that was how fish saw me-glowing like a god. I remember Hazel had told me that she had thought I was one. That I had a powerful aura. Whatever that meant.

Me and the fish-girl swam relays around the containers on the boat. I was trying to get a good angle to stand my ground, but she was fast. She wasn't even bothered by the pollution that surrounded the boat. It was probably part of her mutation; they wanted her to be able to survive in even the harshest environment.

_"SHIIIIINYYYYY_!"

The girl pushed herself and barreled into my midsection. The two of us landed on the deck and slid towards the cabin of the boat. She tried to pin me down, but I managed to push her off. My arms earned a few scratches from the action.

She growled; bubbles rippled from her mouth like foam on a rabid animal. When she lunged once again, I kicked her in the face. Hard enough that she flew back fifteen feet and crashed into one of the containers on the boat. It gave a creek as it inched away from its original spot. The whole ship moaned and teetered on its perch. There was a horrible cracking sound as the rocks beneath began crumbling.

The shift caused the shipping crates to slide towards the dipping end of the boat.

"Oh, no." I groaned. A container gained momentum and came barreling towards me. I commanded a current of water to push me out of the way; the container flew by and zipped off the edge. The boat wailed as it leaned further and further into the fissure.


	3. Max-Chapter 2

**First of all, I hope you all are staying safe out there. Please take care of yourselves! Anyway here is the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer, I do not own either franchise, both belong to their respective owners.**

Max-Chapter 2

I woke up with a splitting headache. It felt as if I had been hit by a freight train. Darkness surrounded me; it was even more than my night vision could handle. Something slimy was wrapped around my body. So gross. Where was Percy? I wriggled around trying to free myself from my bindings. As I moved, blue luminous algae flared to life. I was in a sea cave, tied up by seaweed, and who knows what the heck had dragged me here.

Fang would laugh if he saw me like this. Jerk.

It took longer to break free of my seaweed wrap than I'd care to admit. Whoever had tied me up had no intentions of letting me escape. The cave was narrow, probably just big enough to drive a Chevy Malibu through. Fish bones and shredded dorsal fins littered the floor. Really gross. Even worse, I saw a few half-eaten human corpses floating farther in the cave. I silently prayed that I could go in the opposite direction to escape.

I was about to turn tail and avoid the dead bodies, but I realized that the bodies were in lab coats. Yeah, as in the White Coats; I knew that the boats logo looked familiar. We'd managed to avoid them for a good length of time. Yet, even dead, they were the bane of my existence. With a shudder, I resigned myself to checking the pockets of the coats. There could be something important. I've learned from years of experience; any intel is good intel when it comes to White Coats.

Slowly I reached into the first one's pockets. I did my best not to disturb them too much as I didn't feel like dealing with all the extra grossness that came with this task. _Don't focus on them_. I chanted in my mind and searched the second one. Nothing more than a key card and a weathered name tag could be found between the two of them. I gave a small gag before stuffing my finds in my pockets. It was time I left this dump.

Hopefully finding Percy wouldn't be too hard.

As I searched for the exit of the cave, I worried that whatever had attacked me was going after him too. Not that he was incapable of self-defense. In fact, he was probably more skilled than I gave him credit for when we first met. Regardless, he was my friend and it was my job to look out for him. Especially since I was the one who dragged him out here in the first place, I had to make sure he got home.

There were _two_ lives depending on it.

The cave started to narrow the farther down I swam, the current pushing against me gave me hope that I was heading towards an exit. I would occasionally bump into the sharp walls and get tangled in some of the plant life resting on the floor of the cave. I was annoyed when the water would take on a metallic smell because of my blood. Though, I suppose I should have been grateful to be breathing at all.

It was a relief to see light flooding in ahead of me. At least, until I felt the world go into chaos. I heard a ghostly whine and then something crash into a rocky wall. A thunder-like explosion ripped through the water around me. I was thrashed about before everything finally settled. What the heck was going on?

Whatever it was, it was probably Percy's fault.

I scrambled to get out of the cave and into the open water. The cave that I was in was close to the boat. Close enough that I could see the bottom of the hull hovering over my head like the sword of Damocles. If the grinding sound was an indication of anything, the boat was not done sinking. I silently prayed that my land speed was just as good underwater and swam as fast as I could to get out from beneath the boat. The metal whined as it was twisted by the rocky cliffs in the ocean.

Just as I made it out from the boat's bottom, a torrent of water pushed at my back and sent me tumbling head over heels away from the wreck. It came to a final thud where the rock walls became too narrow for it to fit through. All the containers that had been on the boat were collected into a toxic heap. Some of the doors had been twisted open and the gross content was being spewed into the water.

I wondered where Percy was. Hopefully not crushed under the shipping crates. I swam towards the deck, the water surrounding it was even more sickly looking than it had been before. My skin was practically burning. The water tasted bad. Like I had been swishing a garbage and gunpowder flavored mouthwash.

"Max!" I heard Percy shout. He was behind me, swimming at the top of the cliff. Probably trying not to get into the thick of the ick.

I was flooded (get it?) with relief when I saw Percy was alright. I suppose the son of Poseidon shouldn't have much to fear in the ocean. My relief was short lived when I heard a chittering sound coming from the cluster of shipping containers. I rolled in time to avoid being grabbed by a fish-girl hybrid. Her large eyes slit as she glared at me. She had a row of sharp teeth filling her mouth and blue fins and scales all over her body.

If the dead scientist in the cave weren't a sign of white coat activity, the tracking tag imbedded in her ear sure was. She gave another series of angry chirps, gnashing her teeth at me like an angry piranha.

"Max is not food." Percy swam at breakneck speed to push the girl away from me. I saw her face soften a fraction at the sight of him. The fish girl gave a whine. "No."

_Of course,_ Percy could understand the senseless noises coming from her mouth. The girl looked like she wanted to argue with him. She gave me an annoyed glance, as if I had interrupted something important with my presence.

"Listen," Percy told her. "Let me help you. You don't have to live like an animal. There's a place…."

"_Screee!"_ the fish girl shook her head wildly and dove off.

A sad look came to Percy's face as the bubbles marking her escape slowly dissipated. He was good, sometimes too good for his own sake. Not everyone wanted to be saved. He made an air bubble and we just sat for a moment to decompress. So much for a peaceful training session.

It was eerie how still the ocean was without any fish around. The boat sat in shambles beneath us. Toxic coils curled around our bubble like crude oil.

"Are you okay?" Percy asked me. His eyes wandered to the cuts littering my arms.

"We need to check the ship." I told him as I wiped drenched hair from my face. "It belongs to white coats which means, they're up to something shady. Though, being underwater, I'm not sure if anything survived."

"I can make anything I touch dry, even underwater."

I looked up at him in disbelief, still tasting the bitter water dripping from my lips. He let out an apologetic chuckle and gave me a gentle tap of his finger. The water fell from my body and through the bottom of the air bubble. A part of me felt like punching him for letting me be drenched in the gross water for so long.

"That would have been a nice talent to put to use sooner." I grumbled. Though it was a rather easy ability to forget. "Let's just grab what we think is important from the ship and head back."

Percy ordered the bubble to take us to the cabin of the boat. The force from the ship wrecking into the side of the valley caused the door to open. It waved gently with the water current-as if beckoning for us to come into its darkness. _You won't die in here, _I _promise._ _Percy_ slid out of the air pocket and back into the water. I tried to follow but the wall of the bubble wouldn't let me through.

"You wait here while I check it out." He told me as he peaked his head into the cabin.

I crossed my arms. "I'm coming too, Fish bait."

"We don't know what's in there." The teen reminded me.

"We definitely know what's out here, and I don't have the same charm as you when it comes to aquatic life." I told him before adding, "Besides, who's the one with a lifetime of White Coat experience?"

"You." Percy murmured like a child being scolded.

"Exactly, so make a head sized one of these and let's get a move on." I gestured to the bubble. "I would like to be able to talk to you."

"Maybe I shouldn't." He smirked. "You have gills after all. Talking isn't a necessity."

I showed him with my favorite finger what I thought of that idea.

Percy didn't argue any further and gave me my own personal bubble for my head. While it sucked having my body once again drenched in the gross water, I was proud that I won. The son of Poseidon took lead, fearlessly descending into the pitch blackness like a trooper. Though, I'm sure a ghost ship is one of the least scary things this kid has had to face.

"Try not to kick me." I warned when his foot bounced off my magical bubble of air.

"Try not to swim too close to me." He teased, knowing full well I could hardly make out his form in the dark.

And then suddenly, it wasn't dark. A soft, light blue glow filled the area surrounding us. More specifically around Percy. It seemed to be coming from his skin. I blinked at the sudden brightness, at the fact Percy wasn't surprised this was going on. He swam onward, ducking his head into the first open room. Briefly showing the shadows of a desk and some skewed office supplies.

"I wonder what happened." Percy murmured as I swam onward. Knowing the white coats, the real juicy information was a bit farther back.

"Maybe they ticked your dad off and he sunk it." I joked. When I looked at Percy over my shoulder, he did not look humored by the idea. More like he was worried that was the answer. "Percy, don't waste your time feeling sorry for these people. After what they did to us, to _you_, to all the other lives that have been ruined by them, they've had a lot of karma coming their way."

"Yeah…" Percy agreed, not sounding too committed to the idea. "But some of them had families, right? Kids who didn't have a choice in who their parents were. All they're going to know is that someone didn't come home."

He had a point. After all, if I tried to put myself in the position of a kid whose parent _didn't_ experiment on them-a kid with blissful ignorance, maybe I would be sad and confused. Would I have the moral standing I do now if I didn't grow up the way I did? Who would I be if I had the chance to be _Max Martinez_? Who would Percy be if he were not the son of a sea god?

It felt like hours that we continued to search the boat, still trying to find where all of the science-y knowledge was being kept.

We felt around for doorways, rummaging through drawers and grabbing anything that felt important. It was slow going and sickening as we came near the parts of the boat that had been more populated. Percy looked disgusted as he had to dive under a glossy skinned corpse. The glow around him flickered to a slightly green color. Most of the White coats were dressed up in their lab gear, they had probably been in full swing of their sadistic routine before the ship had been sunk.

Unfortunately for me, I had enough experience with seeing dead bodies to know, they hadn't been dead long. It had to of been a quick demise too, one of the scientists held a dead phone in his hand. Percy gently pried it from his stiff fingers and pressed the _on _button. The devise flared to life, as if it had not been waterlogged. A string of text messages and missed phone call notifications filled the eerie space with noise.

"You goanna make a call?" I joked, but when I saw messages that said _From Mom_ and _From Dad_, I understood a bit of the disturbing sorrow that Percy did.

Percy flinched and let the phone go, it gave an electric buzz, a spark flaring to life before the water snuffed it out. "Can't, monsters will come for me."

"Right, that magical beacon that seems to alert monsters to your location if you make a cell phone call." I nodded as I pushed the phone out of my path. "Do you think monsters run _Verizon_?"

The demigod shrugged, "Wouldn't be the first chain business that I have found being run by monsters."

We continued forward, still avoiding bodies and searching the rooms as we went. Eventually we stumbled upon a room loaded with files and paperwork. The force of the ship's sinking and secondary crash had knocked some of the file drawers loose. Their contests were floating around like store brand fish flakes. There were many photographs of people, all ranging in age, ethnicity, and genders. Many seemed like candid shots, or something you would pull off of their social media pages.

Percy frowned and grabbed a picture of a teen girl; she was probably no more than 13. It looked like the White Coats had also been resorting to stealing school photos. In the dim blue light that came from Percy's skin, I could see that the girl had pin straight blond hair and piercing eyes. For a scary moment, I thought it was Annabeth, but the date at the bottom of the photo told me otherwise.

Written at the bottom was a name _Athena?_

"I…I don't really like what this is suggesting." Percy told me. "Beyond the obvious similarities this girl has to the Athena children…the fact her name is on the bottom…Oh gods, I'm really hoping that…."

I felt like I was being hit in the gut too, "We don't know why they have pictures or files on these people, let's not jump to any conclusions, Percy. There are plenty of people who name their daughters Athena."

He grabbed another picture of a man, probably in his mid-forties, unlike the girl's picture this one was taken at a distance. The man was tall, bulky, and working diligently at a forge, from what I could tell manipulating metal into a sword. I really didn't want to jump on the line of thought that Percy was having, but there was really no reason the White Coats would have any interest in random people.

They all liked to start their experiments from scratch.

All except for one….

"We need more evidence, before we can say what they want with all of these people." I urged.

Percy snatched up one of the papers with writing on it. The page dried and the ink, while a bit faded was legible. He thrust it towards me. "You're a faster reader than I am."

"_Hiroshi Mako twenty-eight years old. Identified as a person of interest by our inside sources. Our intel gathered has proved to be remarkably similar to other persons of interest. Like the others, Hiroshi was raised by a single parent. As stated in Batchelder's notes, like _"Percy" _this boy grew up with learn-"_

"Stop!" Percy tore the letter from my sight and let it float listlessly among its brethren. "I don't think there is any way they _don't _know about demigods."

The demigod punched one of the file cabinet doors, it gave a pained squeak as the force made the whole ship shudder. The door had dented like a soda can. I could see my friend's face pinch up into a look of self-loathing. Percy seemed to take the weight for everything, even if he wasn't at blame. It was a wonder he never cracked from the pressure. Though I suppose, he wasn't the only one with that curse.

The longer we sat in that room, with countless pictures of innocent people floating about, the worse I was feeling. We just needed to get out of the ship, but not without something more substantial than the random crap we had been collecting. My eyes rested on a computer on the opposite end of the room. Obviously waterlogged. It would be useless if it weren't for the fact Percy could make it work again.

"Hey," I called to Percy as I swam over to the computer with an industrial grade tower right next to it. "Maybe we can take some of this equipment with us."

"Wouldn't they have that encrypted?"

"Yeah, but Nudge is a master hacker." I reminded him. "She could probably crack this baby and give us everything that's on it."

Percy looked a bit skeptical about lugging the computer equipment back to Camp Half-Blood, but he grabbed the tower and its cords. I followed up with the monitor and silently hoped that they had not found some way to magically delete everything off of these things. I just wanted to get off this ship, and Percy _needed _to.

"We better go," Percy told me. "It's probably getting late. We can come back later to see if we can find anything else that could be useful."

I would have asked him if we could find this exact spot again, but soon realized that would have been a dumb question. Of course, Percy would probably be able to tell me latitude and longitude where we were and how close we were to the equator. _Perfect bearing at sea_. I reminded myself. The two of us carefully traced our path back to the exit of the cabin. Despite being used to the soft glow that came from Percy's skin, my eyes were totally overwhelmed with the brightness outside of the ship.

I almost had not noticed the spear aimed directly at my head.


End file.
